

^q 



4 ?£m&. ^C^ .VSl9l*. "%^ 



A '«>.-•" 






ft- W 







v-cv 










• A 







"fc- a\^ ^ 



,•1°* 














I'D' • 



o . * • A <V 





* » . • 







^. %*♦♦ /Jite^ \.^ .-la&te ^-^ .-ai 
















+> 





















I 




FUNERAL ADDRESS 



©rtitofc at tfje Burial of 



PRESIDENT JffjfCOLN, 



AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, 

MAY 4, 1805. 



By Eev. MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., 

ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CnURCH. 



k 




FUNERAL ADDRESS 



©flitafc at ±be Burial of 



PRESIDENT ,|MC0LN, 



AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, 

JSTAJY 4, 1805. 



By Eev. MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D. 

ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CnURCH. 



FUNERAL ADDRESS 



Mtlihtxth at tfo 33urtal of 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 



AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, 

MAY 4, 1865. 



By Eev. MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D.. 

ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER, 



200 MULBEERY-STEEET. 
1865. 



i 



\> 



en 



5 
& 



^ 



\<& 



b 



V 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 



Fellow-Citizens of Illinois, and of many parts 

of our entire union : 
Near the capitol of this large and growing State of 
Illinois, in the midst of this beautiful grove, and at 
the open mouth of the vault which has just received 
the remains of our fallen chieftain, we gather to pay 
a tribute of respect and to drop the tears of sorrow 
around the ashes of the mighty dead. A little more 
than four years ago he left his plain and quiet home 
in yonder city, receiving the parting words of the 
concourse of friends who in the midst of the drop- 
ping of the gentle shower gathered around him. He 
spoke of the pain of parting from the place where he 
had lived for a quarter of a century, where his chil- 
dren had been born, and his home had been rendered 
pleasant by friendly associations ; and, as he left, he 
made an earnest request, in the hearing of some who 
are present at this hour, that, as he was about to 
enter upon responsibilities which he believed to be 
greater than any which had fallen upon any man 
since the days of "Washington, the people would offer 
up prayers that God would aid and sustain him in 
the work which they had given him to do. His 
company left your quiet city, but as it went snares 



4 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

were in waiting for the chief magistrate. Scarcely 
did he escape the dangers of the way or the hands of 
the assassin as he neared Washington ; and I believe 
he escaped only through the vigilance of officers and 
the prayers of the people, so that the blow was sus- 
pended for more than. four years, which was at last 
permitted, through the providence of God, to fall. 

How different the occasion which witnessed his 
departure from that which witnessed his return ! 
Doubtless you expected to take him by the hand, 
and to feel the warm grasp which you had felt in 
other days, aud to see the tall form walking among 
you which you had delighted to honor in years past. 
But he was never permitted to come until he came 
with lips mute and silent, the frame encoffined, and 
a weeping nation following as his mourners. Such a 
scene as his return to you was never witnessed. 
Among the events of history there have been great 
processions of mourners. There was one for the pa- 
triarch Jacob, which went up from Egypt, and the 
Egyptians wondered at the evidences of reverence 
and filial affection which came from the hearts of the 
Israelites. There was mourning when Moses fell upon 
the heights of Pisgah, and was hid from human view. 
There have been mournings in the kingdoms of the 
earth when kings and warriors have fallen. But 
never was there in the history of man such mourning 
as that which has accompanied this funeral proces- 
sion, and has gathered around the mortal remains of 
him who was our loved one, and who now sleeps 
among us. If we glance at the procession which fol- 
lowed him, we see how the nation stood aghast. 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 5 

Tears filled the eyes of manly, sun-burnt faces. 
Strong men, as they clasped the hands of their friends, 
were not able in words to find vent for their grief. 
Women and little children caught up the tidings as 
they ran through the land, and were melted into 
tears. The nation stood still. Men left their plows 
in the fields and asked what the end should be. The 
hum of manufactories ceased, and the sound of the 
hammer was not heard. Busy merchants closed their 
doors, and in the exchange gold passed no more from 
hand to hand. Though three weeks have elapsed, 
the nation has scarcely breathed easily yet. A 
mournful silence is abroad upon the land ; nor is this 
mourning confined to any class or to any district of 
country. Men of all political parties, and of all 
religious creeds, have united in paying this mournful 
tribute. The archbishop of the Roman Catholic 
Church in New York and a Protestant minister 
walked side by side in the sad procession, and a Jew- 
ish rabbi performed a part of the solemn services. 

Here are gathered around his tomb the representa- 
tives of the army and navy, senators, judges, govern- 
ors, and officers of all the branches of the government. 
Here, too, are members of civic processions, with men 
and women from the humblest as well as the highest 
occupations. Here and there, too, are tears as sincere 
and warm as any that drop, which come from the 
eyes of those whose kindred and whose race have 
been freed from their chains by him whom they 
mourn as their deliverer. More persons have gazed 
on the face of the departed than ever looked upon 
the face of any other departed man. More have 



6 EUNEKAL ADDKESS, 

looked on the procession for sixteen hundred miles, 
by night and by day, by sunlight, dawn, twilight, and 
by torchlight, than ever before watched the progress 
of a procession. 

"We ask why this wonderful mourning, this great 
procession? I answer, first, a part of the interest 
has arisen from the times in which we live, and in 
which he that has fallen was a principal actor. It is 
a principle of our nature that feelings once excited 
turn readily from the object by which they are excited. 
to some other object which may for the time being 
take possession of the mind. Another principle is, 
the deepest affections of our hearts gather around 
some human form in which are incarnated the living 
thoughts and ideas of the passing age. If we look 
then at the times, we see an age of excitement. For 
four years the popular heart has been stirred to its 
inmost depth. War had come upon us, dividing fam- 
ilies, separating nearest and dearest friends, a war the 
extent and magnitude of which no one could esti- 
mate ; a war in which the blood of brethren was shed 
by a brother's hand. A call for soldiers was made by 
this voice now hushed, and all over the land, from 
hill to mountain, from plain to valley, there sprung 
up thousands of bold hearts, ready to go forth and 
save our national Union. This feeling of excitement 
was transformed next into a feeling of deep grief be- 
cause of the dangers in which our country was placed. 
Many said, "Is it possible to save our nation?" 
Some in our country, and nearly all the leading men 
in other countries, declared it to be impossible to 
maintain the Union ; and many an honest and patri- 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 7 

otic heart was deeply pained with apprehensions of 
common ruin ; and many, in grief and almost in de- 
spair, anxiously inquired, What shall the end of these 
things be ? In addition to this, wives had given their 
husbands, mothers their sons, the pride and joy of 
their hearts. They saw them put on the uniform, 
they saw them take the martial step, and they tried 
to hide their deep feeling of sadness. Many dear 
ones slept upon the battle-field never to return again, 
and there was mourning in every mansion and in 
every cabin in cur broad land. Then came a feeling 
of deeper sadness as the story came of prisoners tor- 
tured to death or starved through the mandates of 
those who are called the representatives of the chiv- 
alry, and who claimed to be the honorable ones of 
the earth ; and as we read the stories of frames 
attenuated and reduced to mere skeletons, our grief 
turned partly into horror and partly into a cry for 
vengeance. 

Then this feeling was changed to one of joy. 
There came signs of the end of this rebellion. We 
followed the career of our glorious generals. We saw 
our army, under the command of the brave officer 
who is guiding this procession, climb up the heights 
of Lookout Mountain, and drive the rebels from their 
strongholds. Another brave general swept through 
Georgia, South and North Carolina, and drove the 
combined armies of the rebels before him, while the 
honored Lieuten ant-General held Lee and his hosts 
in a death-grasp. 

Then the tidings came that Richmond was evacu- 
ated, and that Lee had surrendered. The bells rang 



8 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

merrily all over the land. The booming of cannon 
was heard ; illuminations and torchlight processions 
manifested the general joy, and families were looking 
for the speedy return of their loved ones from the 
field of battle. Just in the midst of this wildest joy, 
in one hour, nay, in one moment, the tidings thrilled 
throughout the land that Abraham Lincoln, the best 
of presidents, had perished by the hands of an assas- 
sin. Then all the feelings which had been gathering 
for four years in forms of excitement, grief, horror, 
and joy, turned into one wail of woe, a sadness inex- 
pressible, an anguish unutterable. 

But it is not the times merely which caused this 
mourning. The mode of his death must be taken 
into the account. Had he died on a bed of illness, 
with kind friends around him ; had the sweat of 
death been wiped from his brow by gentle hands, 
while he was yet conscious ; could he have had power 
to speak words of affection to his stricken widow, or 
words of counsel to us like those which we heard in 
his parting inaugural at "Washington, which shall 
now be immortal, how it would have softened or 
assuaged something of the grief ! There might at 
least have been preparation for the event. But no 
moment of warning was given to him or to us. He 
was stricken down, too, when his hopes for the end 
of the rebellion were bright, and prospects of a joy- 
ous life were before him. There was a cabinet meet- 
ing that day, said to have been the most cheerful and 
happy of any held since the beginning of the rebel- 
lion. After this meeting he talked with his friends, 
and spolje of the four years of tempest, of the storm 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 9 

being over, and of the four years of pleasure and joy- 
now awaiting him, as the weight of care and anxiety 
would be taken from his mind, and he could have 
happy days with his family again. In the midst of 
these anticipations he left his house never to return 
alive. The evening was Good Friday, the saddest 
day in the whole calendar for the Christian Church, 
henceforth in this country to be made sadder, if pos- 
sible, by the memory of our nation's loss ; and so 
filled with grief was every Christian heart that even 
all the joyous thought of Easter Sunday failed to re- 
move the crushing sorrow under which the true Wor- 
shiper bowed in the house of God. 

But the great cause of this mourning is to be found 
in the man himself. Mr. Lincoln was no ordinary 
man. I believe the conviction has been growing on 
the nation's mind, as it certainly has been on my 
own, especially in the last years of his administration > 
that by the hand of God he was especially singled 
out to guide our government in these troublesome 
times, and it seems to me that the hand of God may 
be traced in many of the events connected with his 
history. First, then, I recognize this in the physical 
education which he received, and which prepared him 
for enduring herculean labors. In the toils of his 
boyhood and the labors of his manhood, God was 
giving him an iron frame. Next to this wag his 
identification with the heart of the great people, un- 
derstanding their feelings because he was one of them, 
and connected with them in their movements and 
life. His education was simple. A few months 
spent in the school-house gave him the elements of 

2 



10 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

education. He read few books, but mastered all be 
read. Pilgrim's Progress, ^E sop's Pables, and the 
Life of Washington, were his favorites. In these we 
recognize the works which gave the bias to his char- 
acter, and which partly moulded his style. His early 
life, with its varied struggles, joined him indissolubly 
to the working masses, and no elevation in society 
diminished his respect for the sons of toil. He knew 
what it was to fell the tall trees of the forest and to 
stem the current of the broad Mississippi. His home 
was in the growing AVest, the heart of the republic, 
and, invigorated by the wind which swept over its 
prairies, he learned lessons of self-reliance which sus- 
tained him in seasons of adversity. 

His genius was soon recognized, as true genius 
always will be, and he was placed in the legislature 
of his state. Already acquainted with the principles 
of law, he devoted his thoughts to matters of public 
interest, and began to be looked on as the coming 
statesman. As early as 1839 he presented resolu- 
tions in the legislature asking for emancipation in 
the District of Columbia, whenj with but rare excep- 
tions, the whole popular mind of his state was op- 
posed to the measure. From that hour he was a 
steady and uniform friend of humanity, and was pre- 
paring for the conflict of later years. 

If you ask me on what mental characteristic his 
greatness rested, I answer, On a quick and ready 
perception of facts ; on a memory unusually tena- 
cious and retentive ; and on a logical turn of mind, 
which followed sternly and unwaveringly every link 
in the chain of thought on every subject which he 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 11 

was called to investigate. I think there have been 
minds more broad in their character, more compre- 
hensive in their scope, but I doubt if ever there has 
been a man who could follow step by step, with more 
logical power, the points which he desired to illus- 
trate. He gained this power by the close study of 
geometry, and by a determination to perceive the 
truth in all its relations and simplicity, and when 
found, to utter it. 

It is said of him that in childhood when he had 
any difficulty in listening to a conversation, to ascer- 
tain what people meant, if he retired to rest he could 
not sleep till he tried to understand the precise point 
intended, and when understood, to frame language 
to convey in it a clearer manner to others. Who 
that has read his messages fails to perceive the direct- 
ness and the simplicity of his style ? And this very 
trait, which was scoffed at and decried by opponents, 
is now recognized as one of the strong points of that 
mighty mind which has so powerfully influenced the 
destiny of this nation, and which shall, for ages to 
come, influence the destiny of humanity. 

It was not, however, chiefly by his mental faculties 
that he gained such control over mankind. His 
moral power gave him pre-eminence. The convic- 
tions of men that Abraham Lincoln was an honest 
man led them to yield to his guidance. As has been 
said of Cobden, whom he greatly resembled, he made 
all men feel a sense of himself ; a recognition of indi- 
viduality ; a self-relying power. They saw in him a 
man whom they believed would do what is right, 
regardless of all consequences. It was this moral 



12 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

feeling which gave him the greatest hold on the 
people, and made his utterances almost oracular. 
"When the nation was angered by the perfidy of 
foreign nations in allowing privateers to be fitted 
out, he uttered the significant expression, " One war 
at a time," and it stilled the national heart. When 
his own friends were divided as to what steps should 
be taken as to slavery, that simple utterance, " I will 
save the Union, if I can, with slavery ; if not, slavery 
must perish, for the Union must be preserved," 
became the rallying word. Men felt the struggle 
was for the Union, and all other questions must be 
subsidiary. 

But after all, by the acts of a man shall his fame 
be perpetuated. What are his acts? Much praise 
is due to the men who aided him. He called able 
counselors around him, some of whom have displayed 
the highest order of talent united with the purest 
and most devoted patriotism. He summoned able 
generals into the field, men who have borne the 
sword as bravely as ever any human arm has borne 
it. He had the aid of prayerful and thoughtful men 
everywhere. But, under his own guiding hands., 
wise counsels were combined and great movements 
conducted. 

Turn toward the different departments. We had 
an unorganized militia, a mere skeleton army, yet, 
under his care, that army has been enlarged into a 
force which, for skill, intelligence, efficiency, and 
bravery, surpasses any which the world had ever 
seen. Before its veterans the fame of even the re- 
nowned veterans of Napoleon shall pale, and the 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 13 

mothers and sisters on these hillsides, and all over 
the land, shall take to their arms again braver sons 
and brothers than ever fought in European wars. 
The reason is obvious. Money, or a desire for fame, 
collected those armies, or they were rallied to sustain 
favorite thrones or dynasties; but the armies he 
called into being fought for liberty, for the Union, 
and for the right of self-government ; and many of 
them felt that the battles they won were for humanity 
everywhere, and for all time ; for I believe that God 
has not suffered this terrible rebellion to come upon 
our land merely for a chastisement to us, or as a les- 
son to our age. 

There are moments which involve in themselves 
eternities. There are instants which seem to contain 
germs which shall develop and bloom forever. Such 
a moment came in the tide of time to our land, when 
a question must be settled which affected all the 
earth. The contest was for human freedom, not for 
this republic merely, not for the Union simply, but 
to decide whether the people, as a people, in their 
entire majesty, were destined to be the government, or 
whether they were to be subjects to tyrants or aristo- 
crats, or to class-rule of any kind. This is the great 
question for which we have been fighting, and its 
decision is at hand, and the result of the contest will 
affect the ages to come. If successful, republics will 
spread, in spite of monarchs, all over this earth. 

I turn from the army to the navy. What was it 
when the war commenced ? Now we have our 
ships-of-war at home and abroad, to guard privateers 
in foreign sympathizing ports, as well as to care for 



14 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

every part of our own coast. They have taken forts 
that military men said could not be taken ; and a 
brave admiral, for the first time in the world's history, 
lashed himself to the mast, there to remain as long 
as he had a particle of skill or strength to watch 
over his ship, while it engaged in the perilous con- 
test of taking the strong forts of the rebels. 

Then again I turn to the treasury department. 
Where should the money come from ? Wise men 
predicted ruin, but our national credit has been 
maintained, and our currency is safer to-day than it 
ever was before. Not only so, but through our 
national bonds, if properly used, we shall have a 
permanent basis for our currency, and an investment 
so desirable for capitalists of other nations that, 
under the laws of trade, I believe the center of ex- 
change will speedily be transferred from England to 
the United States. 

But the great act of the mighty chieftain, on which 
his fame shall rest long after his frame shall moulder 
away, is that of giving freedom to a race. We have 
all been taught to revere the sacred characters. 
Among them Moses stands pre-eminently high. He 
received the law from God, and his name is honored 
among the hosts of heaven. Was not his greatest 
act the delivering of three millions of his kindred 
out of bondage ? Yet we may assert that Abraham 
Lincoln, by his proclamation, liberated more enslaved 
people than ever Moses set free, and those not of his 
kindred or his race. Such a power, or such an 
opportunity, God has seldom given to man. When 
other events shall have been forgotten; when this 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 15 

world shall have become a network of republics; 
when every throne shall be swept from the face of 
the earth ; when literature shall enlighten all minds ; 
T\hen the claims of humanity shall be recognized 
everywhere, this act shall still be conspicuous on the 
pages of history. We are thankful that God gave 
to Abraham Lincoln the decision and wisdom and 
grace to issue that proclamation, which stands high 
above all other papers which have been penned by 
uninspired men. 

Abraham Lincoln was a good man. He was 
known as an honest, temperate, forgiving man ; a 
just man ; a man of noble heart in every way. As 
to his religious experience, I cannot speak definitely, 
because I was not privileged to know much of his 
private sentiments. My acquaintance with him did 
not give me the opportunity to hear him speak on 
those topics. This I know, however, he read the 
Bible frequently; loved it for its great truths and its 
profound teachings ; and he tried to be guided by its 
precepts. He believed in Christ the Saviour of sin- 
ners ; and I think he was sincere in trying to bring 
his life into harmony with the principles of revealed 
religion. Certainly if there ever was a man who 
illustrated some of the principles of pure religion, 
that man was our departed president. Look over all 
his speeches; listen to his utterances. He never 
spoke unkindly of any man. Even the rebels re- 
ceived no word of anger from him ; and his last day 
illustrated in a remarkable manner his forgiving dis- 
position. A dispatch was received that afternoon 
that Thompson and Tucker were trying to make 



16 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

their escape through Maine, and it was proposed to 
arrest them. Mr. Lincoln, however, preferred rather 
to let them quietly escape. He was seeking to save 
the very men who had been plotting his destruc- 
tion. This morning we read a proclamation offering 
$25,000 for the arrest of these men as aiders and 
abettors of his assassination ; so that, in his expiring 
acts, he was saying, " Father, forgive them, they 
know not what they do." 

As a ruler I doubt if any president has ever shown 
such trust in God, or in public documents so fre- 
quently referred to Divine aid. Often did he remark 
to friends and to delegations that his hope for our 
success rested in his conviction that God would bless 
our efforts, because we were trying to do right. To 
the address of. a large religious body he replied, 
" Thanks be unto God, who, in our national trials, 
giveth us the Churches." To a minister who said he 
hoped the Lord was on our side, he replied that it 
gave him no concern whether the Lord was on our 
side or not, " For," he added, " I know the Lord is 
always on the side of right ; " and with deep feeling 
added, " But God is my witness that it is my con- 
stant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this 
nation should be on the Lord's side." 

In his domestic life he was exceedingly kind and 
affectionate. He was a devoted husband and father. 
During his presidential term he lost his second son, 
Willie. To an officer of the army he said, not long 
since, " Do you ever find yourself talking with the 
dead \ " and added, " Since Willie's death I catch 
myself every day involuntarily talking with him, as 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 17 

if he were with me." On his widow, who is una- 
ble to be here, I need only invoke the blessing of 
Almighty God that she may be comforted and sus- 
tained. For his son, who has witnessed the exercises 
of this hour, all that I can desire is that the mantle 
of his father may fall upon him. 

Let us pause a moment in the lesson of the hour 
before we part. This man, though he fell by an 
assassin, still fell under the permissive hand of God. 
He had some wise purpose in allowing him so to fall. 
"What more could he have desired of life for himself? 
Were not his honors full ? There was no office to 
which he could aspire. The popular heart clung 
around him as around no other man. The nations 
of the world had learned to honor our chief ma^is- 
trate. If rumors of a desired alliance with England 
be true, Napoleon trembled when he heard of the fall 
of Kichmond, and asked what nation wguld join him 
to protect him against our government under the 
guidance of such a man. His fame was full, his 
work was done, and he sealed his glory by becoming 
the nation's great martyr for liberty. 

He appears to have had a strange presentiment, 
early in political life, that some day he would be 
president. You see it indicated in 1839. Of the 
slave power he said, " Broken by it I too may be ; 
bow to it I never will. The probability that we may 
fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the 
support of a cause which I deem to be just. It shall 
not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me 
elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly 
unworthy of its Almighty architect, it is when I 

3 



18 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all 
the world besides, and I standing up boldly and alone 
and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. 
Here, without contemplating consequences, before 
high Heaven, and in the face of the world, I swear 
eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the 
land of my life, my liberty, and my love." And 
yet, recently, he said to more than one, " I never 
shall live out the four years of my term. When the 
rebellion is crushed my work is done." So it was. 
He lived to see the last battle fought, and dictate a 
dispatch from the ^ home of Jefferson Davis; lived 
till the power of the rebellion was broken ; and then, 
having done the work for which God had sent him, 
angels, I trust, were sent to shield him from one 
moment of pain or suffering, and to bear him from 
this world to the high and glorious realm where the 
patriot and the good shall live forever. 

His career teaches young men that every position 
of eminence is open before the diligent and the 
worthy. To the active men of the country his ex- 
ample is an incentive to trust in God and do right. 
To the ambitious there is this fearful lesson : Of the 
four candidates for presidential honors in 1860, two 
of them — Douglas and Lincoln — once competitors, 
but now sleeping patriots, rest from their labors; 
Bell abandoned to perish in poverty and misery, as 
a traitor might perish ; and Breckinridge is a fright- 
ened fugitive, with the brand of traitor on his brow. 

Standing, as we do to-day, by his coffin and his 
sepulcher, let us resolve to carry forward the policy 
which he so nobly begun. Let us do right to all 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 19 

men. Let us vow, in the sight of Heaven, to eradi- 
cate every vestige of human slavery ; to give every 
human being his true position before God and man ; 
to crush every form of rebellion, and to stand by the 
flag which God has given us. How joyful that it 
floated over parts of every state before Mr. Lincoln's 
career was ended ! How singular that, to the fact of 
the assassin's heels being caught in the folds of the 
flag, we are probably indebted for his capture. The 
fla^ and the traitor must ever be enemies. 

Traitors will probably suffer by the change of 
rulers, for one of sterner mould, and who himself 
has deeply suffered from the rebellion, now wields 
the sword of justice. Our country, too, is stronger 
fur the trial. A republic was declared by monarch- 
ists too weak to endure a civil war ; yet we have 
crushed the most gigantic rebellion in history, and 
have grown in strength and population every year 
of the struggle. We have passed through the ordeal 
of a popular election while swords and bayonets were 
in the field, and have come out unharmed. And 
now, in an hour of excitement, with a large minority 
having preferred another man for President, when 
the bullet of the assassin has laid our President 
prostrate, has there been a mutiny? Has any rival 
proffered his claims ? Out of an army of near a 
million, no officer or soldier uttered one note of dis- 
sent ; and, in an hour or two after Mr. Lincoln's death, 
another leader, under constitutional forms, occupied 
his chair, and the government moved forward with- 
out one single jar. The world will learn that repub- 
lics are the strongest governments on earth. 



20 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 

And now, my friends, in the words of the departed, 
" with malice toward none," free from all feelings of 
personal vengeance, jet believing that the sword 
must not be borne in vain, let us go forward even in 
painful duty. Let every man who was a senator or 
representative in Congress, and who aided in begin- 
ning this rebellion, and thus led to the slaughter of 
our sons and daughters, be brought to speedy and to 
certain punishment. Let every officer educated at 
the public expense, and who, having been advanced 
to high position, perjured himself and turned his 
sword against the vitals of his country, be doomed 
to a traitor's death. This, I believe, is the will of 
the American people. Men may attempt to compro- 
mise, and to restore these traitors and murderers to 
society again. Vainly may they talk of the fancied 
honor or chivalry of these murderers of our sons — 
these starvers of our prisoners — these officers who 
mined their prisons and placed kegs of powder to 
destroy our captive officers. But the American peo- 
ple will rise in their majesty and sweep all such com- 
promises and compromisers away, and will declare 
that there shall be no safety for rebel leaders. But 
to the deluded masses we will extend the arms of 
forgiveness. TVe will take them to our hearts, and 
walk with them side by side, as we go forward to 
work out a glorious destiny. 

The time will come when, in the beautiful words 
of him whose lips are now forever sealed, ki The mys- 
tic cords of memory, stretching from every battle- 
field and patriot grave to every living heart and 
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell 



FUNERAL ADDRESS. 21 

the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as 
surely they will be, by the better angels of our 
nature." 

Chieftain, farewell! The nation mourns thee. 
Mothers shall teach thy name to their lisping chil- 
dren. The youth of our land shall emulate thy vir- 
tues. Statesmen shall study thy record and learn 
lessons of wisdom. Mute though thy lips be, yet 
they still speak. Hushed is thy voice, but its echoes 
of liberty are ringing through the world, and the 
sons of bondage listen with joy. Prisoned thou art 
in death, and yet thou art marching abroad, and 
chains and manacles are bursting at thy touch. Thou 
didst fall not for thyself. The assassin had no hate 
for thee. Our hearts were aimed at, our national life 
was sought. We crown thee as our martyr, and 
humanity enthrones thee as her triumphant son. 
Hero, Martyr, Friend, Farewell ! 



EPILOGUE 

At noon, on Thursday, May 4, 1865, the procession 
escorting Abraham Lincoln's body to the burial 
ground left the Hall of Representatives in the Illinois 
Capitol. The coffin, followed by senators, congress- 
men, governors, state and municipal officials, clergy- 
men, and military figures, passed through the gates of 
Oak Ridge Cemetery to halt at the foot of a knoll 
where a vault of stone had been built into the hillside. 
Here thousands of citizens crowded upon the sur- 
rounding hills and watched and listened as the casket 
was placed in the tomb and the final ceremony was 
performed. A dirge was chanted; scripture was read; 
a prayer was offered, followed by a hymn; the Second 
Inaugural Address was read; another dirge was sung; 
and then Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
Matthew Simpson, a friend of Lincoln's and renowned 
throughout the country for his eloquence, stood to 
speak the final eulogy. 

This oration, which the Chicago Tribune termed "a 
critical and wonderfully accurate analysis of the late 
President's character" and which Nicolay and Hay de- 
scribed as a "pathetic oration," was first published in 
New York by Carlton and Porter in 1865. The fore- 
going is an exact facsimile of that particular publica- 
tion. Since then, all of the sermon or parts of it have 
been quoted in many publications and the words have 
continued to exemplify the solemnity of the occasion. 

What sort of man wrote and spoke these words? 
Matthew Simpson was born June 21, 1811, at Cadiz, 



EPILOGUE 23 

Ohio, the son of James and Sarah Simpson. He was 
brought up by his widowed mother under strong 
Methodist influence. He had little formal schooling 
but on his own he mastered the ordinary school sub- 
jects, and German and Latin. From relatives he 
learned something of the printing trade, law, and pub- 
lic affairs. He supported himself by reed-making, his 
father's vocation, by copying documents in a county 
court, and by teaching. After studying medicine under 
Dr. James McBean of Cadiz, he qualified as a practi- 
tioner. 

During this time, he had become active in the re- 
ligious work of the Methodist church and was li- 
censed to preach. Admitted to the Pittsburgh Confer- 
ence in 1836, he pursued a career in the church that 
was to make him a bishop in 1852, one of the best 
known and most influential Methodists of his day in 
the United States, a counselor of statesmen, and a 
public speaker with an international reputation. 

Matthew Simpson first attracted the notice of states- 
men of the time soon after he was elected editor of 
the Western Christian Advocate by the General Con- 
ference in 1848. Views he expressed on its pages on 
public questions of the day, particularly on slavery, 
brought him to the favorable attention of Salmon P. 
Chase. Simpson soon stood high in the esteem of Ed- 
win M. Stanton and Abraham Lincoln. Prior to the 
1864 election he journeyed throughout the Union de- 
livering a powerful address entitled "The Future of 
Our Country," which brought him fame not only as 
an orator but as a patriot. 

In later years, as he grew in stature as a speaker, 
his duties carried him from the United States to Mex- 



24 EPILOGUE 

ico, Canada, and Europe. At his death on July 18, 
1884, the United States lost one of its niost esteemed 
orators. Never an eminent theologian, scholar, or in- 
novator, he was well-informed and combined practi- 
cality of thought with eloquence to completely en- 
thrall his listeners. 






c : • 

5 









^* '^iSia: v«* «$^Mk ^ 'jiff 






'"♦** s'ii'*'*% % + *^^% V*/'v'* % « 






-o/ 



^ 



a* 






,^ % 



(tf WERT II vv 

| BOOKBINDING g c <p 

Ei Marrh ■ fcofa 1989 II <e? <$» x o 



T^ ^ 









